Allison Schmitt is one of the most decorated American athletes of all time, and perhaps just as importantly – one of this country’s most avid mental health advocates. Schmitt, who is the 2022 MM+M Platinum Award winner for outstanding contribution to healthcare, is a four-time Olympian and a 10-time Olympic medalist.
A veteran leader, she was named captain of the 2020 USA Swimming Team in Tokyo, a role she also held for the 2016 Rio Games. But many may not realize the extent of her advocacy work outside of the pool, on behalf of the mental health community.
In this interview, Schmitt recounts her personal struggle with depression, what motivated her to seek help, and what drives her passion for raising awareness and helping those who are battling mental health issues.
The following interview, which has been lightly edited, was first published as an MM+M Podcast on October 4, 2022.
Marc Iskowitz, MM+M: Many in our audience may have seen the PSAs you’ve done for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or even be aware of your collaboration with Michael Phelps, and the advisory work you’ve done for his nonprofit, the Michael Phelps Foundation. But I’d like to explore what’s behind that, because someone who struggles with a problem — in this case, depression — and then looks to leverage that experience to help others is a special person. Allison, do you want to tell us about how the advocacy work you’ve done grew out of your own experiences?
Allison Schmitt: Thank you. To me, as hard of a topic as mental health is, I’m so passionate about it, and I believe that the best way to destigmatize the negativity around mental health is to speak about it. So, I’ve actually had unfortunate events in my personal life. My cousin died by suicide a week after my 17th birthday. At the same time, I was also experiencing a downward spiral on my own and experiencing depression, but not acknowledging that I was in a mental health crisis. At that point when my cousin lost her life to suicide is when I first reached out for help.
And in that time, I realized how prevalent it is to everyone in this world. And being someone who competes at an international level and is watched on TV, sometimes viewers think that everyone on TV is superhuman and has this glorious life. But I speak out about my own struggles to allow them to understand that you can. Everyone else has goals, and you can accomplish those goals even with mental health issues and problems. So it’s OK to ask for help, and it’s OK to not be OK. But it’s not OK to have that downward spiral and isolate yourself from everyone else.
MM+M: And as your family dealt with the unfathomable grief of losing April — April Bocian, your cousin — you made the decision to no longer be silent. And that has turned out to be a life-changing decision for you. You became an advocate to share your own struggles publicly. And one of the other outgrowths was that your aunt, Amy Bocian, founded the April T. Bocian Memorial Foundation, which gives scholarships to high school seniors and also raises awareness about mental health issues among students. As you began opening up about your depression publicly, what was the hardest part of becoming an advocate for those battling mental illness?
Schmitt: The hardest part about becoming an advocate is having those emotions while advocating. There are many times when I speak about it and I have those emotions come back up and I get emotional while speaking about it. I get emotional while talking about it on camera. I’m so used to being embarrassed about those emotions that it’s hard to show the world those emotions. The hardest part was definitely learning to accept those emotions and understand that every human being goes through those emotions. So it is OK to show those emotions on a worldwide level.
MM+M: Absolutely, you said people think that an athlete who competes at your level and has the kind of success that you have is superhuman. But you’re just as superhuman for showing your emotions and being comfortable in this new role. What kind of feedback did you get and what are you most proud of in terms of this turn you took in 2015?
Schmitt: You make me smile when you ask that question. I think just connecting. As human beings, we love connection. You can be any race, gender or age; everybody can connect with mental health in some aspect. When I speak about it, and there’s kids that come up to me, adults that come up to me and express their story and share their story, open up about their story, it makes my heart grow that someone else is impacted by my story or by April’s story, and is able to create their own story and create their own journey of asking for help.
MM+M: That’s beautiful. As one reads April’s story, it’s hard not to say, “Wow, she had so much going for her.” There’s that notion of how outside looks can mask emotional turmoil. Perhaps one of the other misconceptions people may have about mental illness is that it’s situational, when actually it’s something that many of us struggle with on an ongoing basis, whether we care to admit it or not, including a number of people in our own medical marketing industry. What would you like them to know?
Schmitt: That it can affect anybody at any time. As you said, it’s an invisible disease and it’s not necessarily something that we can see from the outside, which makes it harder to acknowledge and harder to point out in someone else. I recently got hip surgery, my first surgery ever, so I’m wearing a brace and using crutches. Walking by, people ask me about it. “Oh, what happened? How are you doing? How are you feeling? Oh, you’re able to walk again!”
And that’s a physical injury that you’re able to see, and people aren’t judging. So for the invisible disease, the biggest thing is to have an open mind and be nonjudgmental, both to hearing someone else’s story and to your own story. Allow yourself to be vulnerable and share that story and reach a hand out to get the help that’s necessary.
MM+M: We’re hard on ourselves, aren’t we? That’s an important thing, too: not to beat ourselves up. I’d like to just switch gears for a moment. I don’t think a lot of people in our audience necessarily appreciate the rigors of Olympic training and the uniqueness of the Olympic cycle. You talked about what you felt like in early 2015, after coming off of London 2012, where you won gold in the 200-meter freestyle, and that you felt so drained. The perfectionism, the work ethic that drives elite athletes to great heights can also leave them feeling kind of let down after a peak event. What does that feel like?
Schmitt: I’m not exactly sure what to compare the feeling to. You’re on an absolute high. You’ve worked your whole life. And at that point in 2012, I’m 22 years old.
I’ve had a lot of people ask me questions like, “Oh, so when did you start training for the Olympics?” It’s not like you wake up one day and say, “Oh, I’m going to train for the Olympics today!” It’s a lifelong process. And every day you go to practice, every day you’re fueling your body properly, you’re getting the proper sleep. Everything is geared toward the goal of succeeding in that specific sport.
When you hit that goal, you’re not prepared for what’s next. You’re not prepared for the world knowing your name — for walking down the street and hearing people whisper: “There’s Alison Schmidt; there’s the Olympic gold medalist.” I wasn’t prepared for that, and so I’m not exactly sure what to compare the ultimate high of your sport to the coming back down and feeling that low.
But the biggest thing to realize is even when you are watching TV – whether you’re watching movie stars, athletes, or whomever — that they are human and they go through ups and downs just like every viewer out there. And it’s not the glorious life that you see on TV, the gold medals and the winning. That’s part of it. But the whole story is the tears behind the training, the 5:00 AM workouts, not going to family events or the prom or graduations, and skipping those to go to practice. There’s a lot of work that goes into those gold medals that aren’t necessarily shown on TV and are not known by the viewers.
MM+M: Well, you just took all the romanticism out of it. Did anyone prepare you for those post-Olympic blues, or what it was like to go back to “normal life” between Olympics?
Schmitt: It is glorious. It’s a great time. But I was not prepared. And that’s something that as an organization, USOPC [U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee] has to prepare us for. It’s absolutely wonderful. I believe that every athlete coming out and telling their story is helping move that needle from having a negative connotation on mental health to a more positive outlook on mental health.
Stories can only go so far though, and we need change. I wish that personally, I knew the answer to what that change looked like. I’m actually going back to school so that I can make that step for change, but ultimately we need organizations to step up and make that change.
I know a lot of athletes speaking out, and sports organizations are saying that they are giving help. But from my experience of finishing this past Olympics, I am going through that grieving process of coming down from a high and being out of the sport. It’s not easy. And there was no support given to me that the media thinks is given to Olympic athletes.
MM+M: Lest anyone think that our athletes are properly cared for in the mental health area, they’re not. I imagine it’s pretty hard to be one hundred percent physically when you’re not one hundred percent cared for emotionally. Do you think that there’s a higher prevalence of mental health issues among athletes competing at your level?
Schmitt: Yes and no. Yes, because you’re zeroed in on one goal. Being an elite athlete, you are determined, resilient and stubborn, all of which are great qualities to succeed. Those qualities make us internally hard on ourselves. We have pressure from the media, from fans, and from outside. That doesn’t completely crush an athlete. What crushes the athlete is that pressure combined with the pressure they put on themselves.
The second part of my answer — why I say that just being an elite athlete does not necessarily put you under the microscope of having a mental illness — is because there are a lot of other elites out there that are not just athletes.
If you are a person that is going for one goal and doesn’t have that balance because your only vision is to succeed in that one goal, yes, you will succeed in that one goal. But you also have to have that balance in order to fulfill the human needs of connection with other people, asking for help, truly being yourself, and allowing other aspects to come into play rather than that one goal you’re going for.
MM+M: You were one of the first athletes to speak out about this issue. This country finally seems to be paying more attention. The pandemic certainly brought these issues to the forefront in a greater way. Where do you think we still need to make progress in breaking the stigma of mental illness?
Schmitt: We need to have more resources and less judgmental views on the topic. Less judgmental views come from allowing yourself to be vulnerable, but also allowing space for other people to be vulnerable without having the judgmental glasses on. Especially the younger generation.
People love to talk. Humans love to talk. Humans look for connection. And as we grow older, and as we get more into our careers and there’s more going on with life, we get stuck in the hustle and bustle of everyday life and forget to truly ask someone how they’re doing. And I know that there are a lot of times people run by and instead of saying, “Hi,” you’re just like, “Hey, how are you doing?”
They’re not really caring how you’re doing, and they’re still walking. But if you’re able to set aside two or three minutes of your time and truly ask someone and be invested in their answer of how they’re doing, it speaks volumes and allows another human being to feel that connection and feel more like they’re a human rather than a robot walking around with a smile on their face.
MM+M: That’s something that we can all do and relate to, certainly. I would imagine there needs to be more attention paid to understanding that brain-body connection, as well. Any comments on where you like to see things go on the research front?
Schmitt: That’s a good question. I’m actually in a research class right now, and it’s been interesting to read journals and scholarly articles on the topic. What’s more interesting to me is how there’s been more [literature] in the past 10 years, which actually helps a lot of my research in my classes because it’s more prevalent.
But truthfully, it’s more of the resources. People are coming out in admitting that they need help, but there are no opportunities to get help. And if you’re in a crisis situation, and you call for a psychologist, there are times when you call and ask for an appointment. And it’s like, “OK, we’ll see you in three months.”
It’s like, “I finally just got the courage to ask for help and admit to myself that I needed help. I need help quickly before this keeps going in a downward spiral.” The biggest part is having more opportunities and resources to help people that are coming out and asking for help.
MM+M: And your Aunt Amy, again, going back to that story, she talked about how hard it was to get an appointment with a psychiatrist for April. It just underscores your point. Just curious, how do you deal with stress?
Schmitt: Well, I look at coping skills as a toolbox. And I’m always willing to put more tools in my toolbox! That’s an evolving question that, again, I wish I knew the answer to. But the tools in my toolbox currently are taking deep breaths, removing myself from the situation and giving myself incentives and motivations to do something I enjoy doing.
The biggest thing for me is taking those deep breaths. And when I take those deep breaths, it’s almost like I set myself in a little bit of mindfulness and I put both feet on the ground. I’m touching a chair and I’m breathing deeply, in and out through my nose. That allows our nervous system to level out and allows us to not get such a high or such a low. So that is my best tool right now. But like I said, I’m willing to learn about any other tools that could possibly help.
MM+M: Never underestimate the power of breathing, right? As you mentioned, you’re also earning a master’s in social work out of a desire to help others who are struggling. What would you like to do with that degree and, and what’s next for your advocacy work?
Schmitt: Yes, I’m earning a master’s in social work. I will be finishing up this May. Next semester I have two more classes and I’ll finish up my internship. I’m currently at a behavioral health hospital. My first internship was at a university in counseling services for the general population.
This year I’m doing psychiatric work along with equine therapy, and my goal is to get experience in different types of work. I have that knowledge behind me when I work with athletes, and my end goal is to work with athletes. I don’t know quite yet what that will look like, but that’s a huge needed space — A, when they have failed; B, when they have had their success and understanding those emotions; and C, grieving when you do not hit your goal or when you’re transitioning out of the sport.
MM+M: That sounds like a wonderful way to continue your advocacy beyond the Olympics. And anyone dealing with a mental health issue can call the SAMHSA National Help Line 24/ 7, 365 days a year at 1-800-662-HELP (1-800-662-4357), or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988.
Allison, it’s been an absolute pleasure meeting you. I know our audience will love hearing more from you at the MM+M Awards. Thanks so much for joining us today.
For more on Allison Schmitt and her acceptance speech at the MM+M Awards, see Marc Iskowitz’s column, “Time to wake the sleeping giant.“
